Patricia Miller is the author of Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church. She has written extensively about the intersection of politics, sex and religion. She was the editor of Conscience magazine, the leading journal of pro-choice Catholic thought, and the editor-in-chief of National Journal’s daily health care briefings.

“Leading”? According to… themselves?

So, Patricia Miller is an open, abortion promoter. There is also a Sr. Patricia Miller, SSND. I think they may be the same person. Someone, please correct me if I am wrong.

Miller has rushed to trumpet a statement of some nuns in support of the ObamaCare pro-contraception, pro-abortion mandate being imposed by the government contrary to the 1st Amendment.

The group of nuns, the National Coalition of American Nuns, is even more openly dissident than the LCWR. It is a tiny group that openly advertises the Womens Ordination Conference, Call To Action, Future Church, the National catholic Reporter … you get the idea. They are openly what the LCWR would like to be openly. However, it seems that their website has not been updated since 2009. Some signers of a letter they sent to the Holy See include Joan Chittister, OSB, Jeannine Gramick, SL, Theresa Kane, RSM, Donna Quinn, OP. Still, it seems that this is a tiny group of the more radicalized.

In short, this is an insignificant group of cranks on the farthest fringe of the liberal dissident nun phenomenon.

Therefore, Patricia Miller writes about it as it were highly significant, from her expert point of view.

Catholic Nuns Back Obamacare Contraception Access

The National Coalition of American Nuns has announced their support for women’s right to access contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act as the Supreme Court prepares to hear the historic Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases. [So, what? I today announce my support for the Cubs right to win the World Series. Hear that, everyone? Make it happen!] While the plaintiffs in these cases are Mennonites and evangelical Christians, opposition to the contraceptive mandate was largely spearheaded by the Catholic bishops. [For people like the writer and the crank group in question, the bishops are the Bad Guys. Remember, if the LCWR is the main exponent of the Magisterium of Nuns, these are the wannabes waaaaay out on the fringe.] Several key cases of Catholic non-profits, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are making their way through the lower courts and may well end up in the Supreme Court themselves. [For the group in question, and the writer, the Little Sisters of the Poor are also The Bad Guys.]

“NCAN is dismayed that the Little Sisters of the Poor, [See?] the University of Notre Dame and other Catholic organizations are challenging the Affordable Care Act. Spurred on by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops these organizations are attempting to hold hostage all women by refusing insurance to them for contraceptives,” said the 2,000-member group in a statement.

“This has gotten out of hand,” Sister Donna Quinn, head of NCAN, told RD. [Remember Donna Quinn? I refer you to my infamous post called Nuns Gone Wild! Sr. Donna Quinn, of the Sinsinawa Domincans in Wisconsin, has escorted women to abortion clinics in the Chicago area so they could abort their babies safe from pro-life protesters. ] “It isn’t ‘faith and freedom’ when reproductive autonomy isn’t extended by the Catholic Church to women. Now we have other Christian religions seeing what the bishops are doing and saying we will do likewise. It isn’t freedom when a woman can be held hostage by the owner of a business.” [It is hard to find words to describe how stupid that argument is.]

The nuns are seeking support for their stand through an online petition. The Rev. Debra Haffner of the Religious Institute [more on her HERE. She is a “sexologist and ordained Unitarian Universalist minister”. Whoohoo! What else has she accomplished? “Prior to founding the Religious Institute and entering ministry, Haffner was President and Chief Executive Officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (1988-2000), Director of Information and Education for the Center for Population Options,[5] Director of Community Services and Public Relations, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.[6] She has also worked at the Bureau of Community Health Services at the U.S. Public Health Service, and at The Population Institute.” Get the idea? Reading her background brought the word “eugenics” to mind. More HERE.] is helping NCAN coordinate the effort. “When I saw the brave stand these nuns were taking on the mandate, I started to think about what we could do to amplify their voices. So we launched a social media campaign asking people to ‘Stand with the Nuns’,” she said. [Remember all the catholics who jump onto the “stand with the nuns” rhetoric when nuns – whichever – back obviously liberal and obviously dissident causes, especially against the bishops (read: Magisterium of Nuns).]

“We really need to counter the idea that faith is opposed to family planning,” said Haffner, [What she really means is “contraception and abortion”.] who’s also helping to coordinate a Faith Rally at the Supreme Court on March 25, the day of the oral arguments for the mandate challenges. “All too often the media only shows a Catholic bishop to offer the faith perspective. More than 14 major religious denominations have statements supporting birth control and birth control access. People need to understand that this is not only an affront to women’s moral agency but opens the door to denying a whole range of services, from other kinds of reproductive health care to services to LGBT people,” she said. [So, this whole thing is a ploy to grab a little attention.]

NCAN has a long history of reproductive justice and Catholic reform activism. Quinn has volunteered as an abortion clinic escort [Good grief. They are even openly proud of that.] and was one of the leaders of a delegation of women religious to Rome 1994 to hold a parallel discussion about the role of women religious during the bishops’ synod on religious life, which largely excluded women.

Liberals have coalitions of myriad groups, many fronts for other, much larger groups. The small groups provide cover and distraction for what the larger groups are really up to. This is a common feature of the Left’s activity. They work together, cover each other’s tracks, carry each other’s water, present a united front.

What Father Z gives us a glimpse of here is the Satanic Juggernaut at whose machinations so many of us of the Western Church — laity, Religious, pastors and hierarchs — have connived for too long, and under whose wheels we now beg its demonically inspired drivers not to fling us so that we may preserve the “religious liberty” we have so prodigally misdefined, abused, and frittered away.

We have wasted precious hours, years, decades praying in the wrong direction. Even so, Our Lord, Who created us and died for us out of love, asks only that we turn to Him with contrition and purpose of reparation and amendment.

Now is not too late to once again direct our prayers to Him, to His Blessed Mother, to St. Michael and to all the angels and saints on behalf of ourselves and of all sinners. Later may be too late.

When “Nuns go wild” is there nothing that the Bishops in their Diocese can do? How come individuals like this don’t get reprimanded by their superiors or quietly excommunicated? Do we stand against evil or don’t we? If I were an outside observer, I would think twice about joining a church that speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Speaking now as a layperson, stuff like this is getting more and more difficult to defend against. When non-Catholics mock us over the idea of an objective morality, how can one defend against it when there are Nuns advocating birth control, abortion, and LGBT rights? The Pope says….. or The Catechism says….. only goes so far before people non-Catholics realize we have some serious wounds. These CINO need to be addressed quickly.

I followed Fr. Z.’s link to the “Religious Institute” run by this Ms. Haffner. There she has posted a “religious declaration” that opposes Catholic doctrine in every way possible. Here’s just one line: “All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent and pleasure.”

Get that? Sex is a “right” above and beyond being a gift from God. You can read the declaration for yourselves, but Father’s correct – eugenics and population control do come to mind.

This lady implies that she considers doctrine such as those of the Catholic Church to be “sexual oppression”. Her declaration fails to define any sexual behavior that could or would be considered aberrant or deviant. This is one scary lady and the nuns who’ve thrown in with her need to be shown the door if they don’t repent – pronto.

They are not really ‘nuns’ and certainly give true Brides of Christ a very bad name. They automatically excommunicate themselves and as they lead others to SIN, their souls are in mortal danger of hell fire. Official excommunication would be as a medicine for them and perhaps some would wake up and see their error. But do we have the leaders to do this???

Does “Quinn has volunteered as an abortion clinic escort” not imply Donna Quinn has most probably incurred a latae sententiae excommunication for her crime? Surely her bishop has made inquiries so that her self-publicized situation may be publicly clarified? Since she has so pointedly made her actions public, if she does not deserve excommunication, it should be public and if she does, that ought to be public, as well.

In any case, suffice it to say when the bishops ever invite laypersons or non-ordained religious to join in their discussions in some capacity, they’ll be asking to sell their souls to the evil one if these are the sorts of people they ask to hear from. By “these…sorts of people”, I mean people who publicly imply that they have the personal authority to presume to correct and act in direct and public defiance of the moral law of the Church and to advise others to do the same.

This problem (and it’s a big problem) is taking care of itself naturally. The feminist orders have no vocations and the average age has to be 60 or even 70 something. They’re dying out and that’s nothing to mourn. God is replacing these disgraced orders with a new generation of holy women who are pursuing vocations in contemplative orders like the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters and the Poor Clare’s of Perpetual Adoration. On the active order side, the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Sisters for Life are both growing with vocations. So, while I agree with everyone that the bishops where these pro-abortion feminists exist need to publically roll out the bell, book and candle, we can take solace in the fact that the weeds of the 1970s are rotting in the foul soil they’ve cultivated.

I hate to repeat myself, I know I’ve asked this before, but why do these dissident/heretic/satanic “nuns” get to call themselves “Catholic”. They do not deserve that privilege, they have disassociated themselves with authentic teaching and the word of God. I do not understand how these things work, but there has to be some oversight. This makes absolutely no sense to me. It is bad enough to have these womyn doing these evil actions, and bragging about it to boot. To see them do this under the Catholic banner is what makes this really appalling. It ought not be allowed or tolerated, and it is scandalous that it is. I guess you can’t prevent someone or a group from calling themselves Catholic, but if they are under the auspices of the Catholic Church, how can this be? They are lucky I’m not in charge, I’d be doing some de-funding.

In practice the way this has been operating is a kind of ostentatious showcasing of relationship with these dissenting sisters intended to convey some weird kind of a token credibility that a given cleric is able to get along healthily with women, understands and listens to women of today and their situations. When, in reality, there is little to no listening to the authentic Catholic voice of women, particularly prolife lay and religious women, with great deliberation, their participation is turned away, and a great phobia of being seen as somehow in solidarity with prolife. Deo Gratias, the foisting of these false teachings on innocents is becoming much less celebrated not just in this country but throughout the world. Again one notices that these friendships are born out of a certain age and seeks eternal youth. However the voice of youth is prolife. The country never came to consensus that abortion is somehow a “good”, secular and all. Continuously greater numbers identify as prolife. To not listen to more than half the country’s discernment that abortion is a grave moral evil represents a totalitarian impulse at work that is not consonant with our basic liberty.

Oh, goodness! 23 or so years ago when I was an undergraduate at a small ‘c’atholic women’s college in New Jersey, Sr. Jeanine Grammick and her group Dignity USA were brought in for a Saturday “workshop”. I remember attending and meeting her. Of course, I had zero knowledge about who she really was or why that kind of thing was wrong and heretical. …. I find it almost surreal at times. I was Catholic school educated from K-12 and then a Catholic college, and yet, so poorly catechized. I don’t want to slander anyone, and I’m not saying all the Sisters of Mercy at that college were radical, but looking at things now, I see in hindsight, I see that many of them were.

rkingall, I too was educated in elementary school by the Sisters of Mercy. I will always have fond memories of them but at that time, it was a different order. That was in the 1970s and at the time (at least in my Diocese) they were wearing veils and were teaching Catechism. I wasn’t even a Catholic at the time but religion class was my favorite class and it was their teachings about Fatima, Lourdes and the truth about the protestant reformation that planted the seeds of my conversion to the Catholic faith. Now, I don’t even recognize the Sisters of Mercy with the exception of one who is very devout, goes to Mass, and still wears her veil. The others left here in this Diocese are all elderly, look like common folk and have zero vocations. Remember them for what they were, not what they are today.

Why are these sisters given a free pass to spread their vile heresy while the Franciscans of the Immaculate are squashed like a bug? There is terrible diabolic disorientation afoot in the Church and it is agonizing to watch.

I agree with all that you said except the ‘quietly excommunicated’ part. I don’t think there should be anything quiet about it. It should be broadcast far and wide, since they have broadcasted their Scandal far and wide. When I think of the number of Catholic youth that have been and are being scandalized at ‘Catholic’ colleges, my heart breaks. How many thousands upon thousands have been lead into error by the things they are taught by dissident nuns and priests and professors and the likes of Pelosi, Biden, Cuomo…. It is sickening. The bishops (all of them, not just a few) and the Pope need to once and for all make it loud and clear that this sort of nonsense is NOT Catholic and anyone promoting or adhering to it is NOT in communion with The Church and has placed their immortal souls in grave jeopardy. Canon 915 must be enforced. Souls are at stake, including their own. If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.

I share your enthusiasm, but my reason for quietly excommunicating is solid. You do not want this poor, old womyn who was doing God’s work, and viciously ripped from her order by the bigoted Roman Catholic Church due to her forward thinking and care for womyn’s issues to become a media darling and the poster child for anyone who ever had a bone to pick with the Holy Mother Church.

@ASPM Sem et al.: To assume that matters will be righted by what some call the “biological solution” fails to take into account that Satan is not a biological being.

Awareness of that fact would seem in itself to be a safeguard against error. But, really, how many homilies have you heard preached lately about Satan, sin, or Hell? Even as faithless “religious” orders plunge into oblivion, the Devil’s minions are devising as-yet-unseen ways to ravage our world, our Church — and, yes, our youth.

Faithful young people, lay and ordained, are the vanguard in the burgeoning chastisement. Our prayers for them and support of them must be as unceasing as are the Devil’s efforts to corrupt and destroy them and us. Mere watchful waiting for heresy’s demise will not avail.

might these be the “sterile, producing no fruit” types Francis was referring to, I,ll bet there are few if any members under 60 in that group, thank heavens the “biological solution” is slowly having an effect., they are not producing any new “fruit” they are dying off, too slowly but they are

Oh, and as in the “liberal” secular world, “liberals” get a pass on all sorts of bad behavior and it’s the conservatives who are punished and reprimanded.

How possibly can Deacon Nick Donnelly be asked to “censor himself by entering a period of reflective prayer” or Franciscan Friars be prohibited from celebrating TLM, yet these “sisters” aren’t admonished or the evil knuckleheadery at the Religious Education Conference in LA isn’t stopped?

It’s just the typical left wing bias where, even in the church, the bias is to support leftism by granting some sort of noble sanctification upon it while slapping around conservatives when the conservatives are generally right and the leftists are almost universally wrong.

So long as the Catholic Church allows people such as this to remain in the Church, it does not have one. single. ounce. of credibility to say anything to anyone about anything.

Canon 915 is a dead letter.

The SSPX are still out in the cold, but the women listed in this article are “in good standing.”

And a standing Cardinal is openly spearheading a path to allowing Church sanctioned sacrilege as a norm, destroying the Sacrament of Matrimony and defiling the Eucharist by default.

Make no mistake. Allowing these people to fester will send us on a path to destroy the entire edifice of the Church. God, of course, will not allow this. His promise is firm, and permanent. But God have mercy on the souls He lays waste to in the process of correcting this situation.

It is no wonder someone like Fr. Cekada, who holds such an ultimately unreasonable position, sounds so reasonable.

In my humble and unasked for opinion, what we need is someone in authority with a St. Nicholas / US Marines mindset. Rid the Church of these dissidents. Then, after they are kicked out, extend the hand of Mercy. “You have separated yourself from Mother Church. Repent, recant and promise to live by the teachings of the Church and you will be welcomed back into the fold.”
These dissident groups need to learn, in no uncertain terms, that the Church is not a secular democracy. We are an institution, founded by our Savior, who knew Himself what it was to obey the Father’s Divine Will. Who are we to set ourselves up above Him? Pride is a very bad thing.

They are in danger, yes, but we need to pray for them and not judge their souls or assume we know where they will end up. Without charity it may be we who end up there. I pray for them every day, and consider this important also to my own soul. I myself am a sinner. I am having a Mass offered on the Feast of the Annunciation for a Sister who was a friend to Sr Donna and thought much like her, who passed away recently.

Really, what do the leaders of the church want? Men hate this sort of duplicity. I believe men want a hard line being taken with them. We are hierarchical and operate based on merit. This sort of duplicity and disobedience is feminine. One of the many reasons me have given up on the church is this sort of feminized, homosexualized, metrosexualized nonsense devoid of reason and virtue and fraught with “feelings” is pervasive. Are we not Soldiers of Christ in the Church Militant?

So that’s a good one. They sent a letter to the Holy See? I’ll bet the Holy See sawr the signatures of “the usual suspects” and gave the letter its just due. Sr. Kane, RSM? Isn’t she the one who stood in front of JP II in 1979 to to announce to him of the “intense suffering” of the nuns here? Is SHE still around? This is really quite a joke. What bothers me is how they are able to gin up support from the lay people for “nuns” (that is the only word they hear….and they conjur up the good nuns they had 40-50 years ago and draw a connection. If they only knew. These are probably the same robots who voted in 2012 to re-elect. Good grief.

It isn’t freedom when a woman can be held hostage by the owner of a business.

So true! As bad as Obamacare is, we really do have to do something about the debacle of Catholic run businesses raising capital by tying up their female employees in back rooms and sending ransom notes to their families…

If only there was some sort of written down law .. or a hierarchy of some sort that would monitor such atrocious veering from the truth and set them straight before they cause serious harm to peoples souls…. /s

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